Just announced, Tommy Smith has died.
The quarried player synonymous with uncompromising play.

R.I.P

Rip Tommy

Legend.

Uncompromising.

Allegedly he would hit Leighton James with an early one, just to let him know he was there.. then he’d say to Taffy

- come near me again James and I’ll put you over that retaining wall.

RIP.

RIP Tommy.

Who was it that was sick of Emlyn Hughes and next time he came near him he dumped him on his arse. Only to hear Hughes in his high pitched voice say you're in trouble now. It was Smith who he had stuck once on. One of the old school hard men from the 60s and 70s.

RIP Tommy

RIP Tommy Smith, a real character who, as hampstead says, was uncompromising but did what he did very well.
A Liverpool legend who won 4 League Championships, the European Cup, UEFA Cup x 2, UEFA Super Cup and the FA Cup twice in a Liverpool career spanning 16 seasons.

RIP Tommy Smith

Hard and uncompromising but also a damn good player.

A real hard man in an era of hards. Like Ron "chopper" Harris, Nobby Stiles and the Dirty Leeds contingent.

And yes, a very good player, too.
RIP

A genuine hard man and good player, his duels with Brian O'Neil were worth the admission price alone.
RIP Tommy.

Tommy certainly knew how to intimidate. A classic football hard man.

Herts Clarets wrote:Who was it that was sick of Emlyn Hughes and next time he came near him he dumped him on his arse. Only to hear Hughes in his high pitched voice say you're in trouble now. It was Smith who he had stuck once on. One of the old school hard men from the 60s and 70s.

RIP Tommy

Either paul Fletcher or Steve kindon. Plenty of the old school after dinner speakers had a Tommy smith story. RIP Tommy Smith.

Darnhill Claret wrote:Tommy certainly knew how to intimidate. A classic football hard man.

He knew how to intimidate his own team mates by being a massive racist bully towards them.

Sure he was a good footballer too.

Boxing Day match 1960s, Smith and O'Neil at it from the off on wet, muddy TM pitch. Smith scythes O' Neil down in front of the Longside, as they get up O'Neil shouts "hey Tommy" who looks up only to be hit by a mud pie straight between the eyes. No complaints, fair game, one-nil to O'Neil, revenge to be exacted later. Those were the days!

RIP Tommy. Known as a hard man but he was a very good footballer. He used to have a pub called Smithies at Billinge that I used to frequent on occasions in the '80’s.

NottsClaret wrote:He knew how to intimidate his own team mates by being a massive racist bully towards them.

Sure he was a good footballer too.

But was it seen as racist or bullying back in that time period? Can people be accused of we now see as illegal or distasteful behaviours when the society they lived in then had very different morals and ethics about those things? Which of our current societal norms will perceived to be offensive by people in 50 years time? Who knows, and Tommy, as did many of us, lived his life to the society we created from the society our parents had. Hence why older people always despair of the 'youth of today'.

Sad to end with dementia.

I remember he was also walking with sticks, at a young age.

He was always patched up and played with injuries and a cortisone injection, or several.

Herts Clarets wrote:Who was it that was sick of Emlyn Hughes and next time he came near him he dumped him on his arse. Only to hear Hughes in his high pitched voice say you're in trouble now. It was Smith who he had stuck once on. One of the old school hard men from the 60s and 70s.

RIP Tommy

Paul Fletcher. He feigned injury to get subbed so Smith couldn't get him. He'd elbowed Smith, thinking it was Hughes to the side of him.

Just read Keegan's autobiography. He tells of the time, when he became famous, a well known boot company wanted him to endorse their white boots for a more than decent contract. Keegan thought he would run it past Tommy Smith (as he liked to be in charge of the dressing room) Tommy pointed out that although Alan Ball and Alan Hinton wore white boots, their respective clubs wore white socks but with Liverpool in all red Tommy thought that KK would look a bit of a prat in white boots...and there would be other marketing opportunities for him for sure.
Sometime later, as the players filed out for training, KK spotted Tommy wearing the white boots!!! 'Hey' he said 'you're wearing white boots'....well, said Tommy, you've got to grab whatever you can when you're my age!!!!

Another young one to get dementia. How many more to come.

Tommy didn't have any time for his team-mate the England Captain Emlyn Hughes.

Liverpool v Chelsea and Chopper Harris scythes down Emlyn, after which Tommy jogs past Chopper and says, "Hey Chopper, I could grow to like you".

Different times, and good times.

RIP Tommy.......God Bless!

RIP. didn't he get his disability benefits cut after playing in a veterans game before an FA cup final something sticks in my mind about that.
That said how many creative players who could have won things for club and country had their careers ruined by the "hard men " of the era ? How many defenders who wanted to play the ball out and close down attackers were coached out of such technique as coaches of the day wanted them to hit the opposition hard then aim for the knee ?
I think we have moved on.

bfcjg wrote:RIP. didn't he get his disability benefits cut after playing in a veterans game before an FA cup final something sticks in my mind about that.
That said how many creative players who could have won things for club and country had their careers ruined by the "hard men " of the era ? How many defenders who wanted to play the ball out and close down attackers were coached out of such technique as coaches of the day wanted them to hit the opposition hard then aim for the knee ?
I think we have moved on.

Your first sentence is correct I seem to remember.

South West Claret. wrote:Your first sentence is correct I seem to remember.

And the rest ?

History

RIP Tommy Smith
Legend.

bfcjg wrote:And the rest ?

Sounds reasonable for those times and some really nasty players like Harris (Chelsea) Storey and Ure (The Arse and Man U) not to mention our very own Colin Blant.

For a full back Tommy scored the odd cracking goal.
None better than the header he scored from a corner in the 1977 European Cup Final vs Borrusia.
I can still hear The commentator Barry Davis’s words now after the ball went in.
It must be on YouTube somewhere.
Rest in Peace Tommy.

RIP to Tommy.

I’m glad we dont have footballers like him anymore, mind.

RIP Tommy
One of the toughest half backs I had the privilege to see on several occasions.

IanMcL wrote:Sad to end with dementia.

I remember he was also walking with sticks, at a young age.

He was always patched up and played with injuries and a cortisone injection, or several.

Basically today we have political correctness rammed down our throats by a generation of not very well educated ( not all by the wsy) snowflakes . And if you disagree with the not very well educated stement watch some of them.on quiz programmes. Just what are they taught by their liberal snowflake lectuers? Having said that I am always delighted to watch a d enjoy University challenge.

RIP Mr. Tommy Smith.

I had the privilege of meeting Tommy in the late 80's at an LFA disciplinary hearing, he was there due to the poor disciplinary record of his pub team, spent a very entertaining half hour with him whilst waiting for our cases to be heard, needless to say he had a very low opinion of disciplinary committees.